When New York State introduced a state tournament in boys volleyball three years ago, the immediate question in Section VI was who would be the first team to qualify? Based on their history of success, Orchard Park or Eden seemed like a pretty educated guess. After being shut out the first two years of the event, Lake Shore finally broke through in 2012 and became the answer to the future trivia question.

The Eagles didn’t win, falling to Bellmore of Section VIII, 25-17, 25-20, 25-16, but the Class B state title game isn’t a bad place to end your season. To reach states Lake Shore won their second consecutive Section VI title by downing Kenmore East in the final. From there it was a victory over Brighton of Section V in the Far West Regionals.

“It would have been nice if we could have pulled it out, it was a good group of kids,” said Lake Shore’s John Coyle, who has coached 17 seasons. “We had a lot of pride going down there, not only representing the school, but the Section. Section V is tough, they have a lot of club teams, they play year round. It was a big hurdle to get past them.”

Lake Shore was also well represented on the All-Western New York team landing setter Billy Pinter for the second year in a row and outside hitter Ryan Joslyn. The seniors helped lead the team to a 20-5 overall record and a 12-0 mark in ECIC II. Pinter averaged 7.8 kills per match, but delivered big time in the Regionals with 17.

“From the beginning of the season I knew we had to potential to make it that far,” said Pinter. “We had talent and we had been playing club together for years. Halfway through the season we switched to a 6-2 where I got to hit as well and Ryan started setting. We just had chemistry.”

The All-WNY team, which celebrates its 30th year, was chosen by a panel of area coaches.

Orchard Park’s Matt Lexner and Walt Stefani were named the WNY Coaches of Year by their peers. The Quakers (22-3, 11-1) won the Section VI Class A title in a five-game thriller over two-time defending champion Frontier, and finished as the No. 1 ranked team in the WNY Coaches poll. They were eliminated in the regionals in four games by McQuaid, which went on to win its third state title and extend its winning streak to 52 straight matches.

There are three repeat first teamers: Pinter, Dave Jepson of Canisius and Trey Cimorelli of Orchard Park. Cimorelli had 587 digs this season to end his career with a school record 1,784. He also carries a 97 average. The only junior is Canisius setter Brian Costello.

Section VI also placed three on first team All-New York State: Joslyn (Class B), Pinter (Class B) and Cimorelli (Class A).

ECIC titles were won by Orchard Park (ECIC I), Lake Shore (ECIC II), Eden (ECIC III) while Grand Island (11-1) won the Niagara Frontier League. OP’s only league loss was to Clarence.

Canisius (26-5) won its 13th consecutive Monsignor Martin Association title. Jepson of Canisius and Jack Heary of St. Joe’s were named the league’s co-MVPs.

Jepson was clearly the league’s comeback player of the year. After he broke both bones in his lower leg on Memorial Day, his senior season was in jeopardy. Not only did he recover, he played well enough to make All-WNY.

“I think I’ll remember it as just having the ability to play considering I wasn’t expected to,” said Jepson. “I was just happy to finish off the season with a championship. I did not expect to be in the place I was at the end of the year. It’s pretty strong. I did a lot of training to get it to where it was. You can’t think about it.”

St. Joe’s lost three of the four matches with rival Canisius, but the one win, coming in the first meeting, snapped the Crusaders’ league and playoff winning streak that went back an impressive 12 years.

“That refocused us. It was a wake-up call, a kick in the butt so to speak,” said Canisius coach Tom Weislo. “After that loss we didn’t drop a set. We’re always circled on their schedule. We need to be good all the time. We know we’re going to get everyone’s best. We learned that the hard way this year, and we took care of business the rest of the way.”